Best Energy Picks - August 17, 2024
Readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy.
This week’s best energy picks:
Heat Pump Propaganda Is Heating Up — $2 Trillion/Year Wasted Chasing ‘Green’ Fantasies — Why Aren’t We Hearing About Record Low Temps? — Stop Vilifying the Oil and Gas Industry! — and much more.
Heat Pump Propaganda Is Heating Up
Heat pumps have their place, but over-selling them as a substitute for reliable energy is wrought with danger:
High electricity rates are yet another factor that will likely chill customer reception towards heat pumps. Nowhere is this problem more acute than in California, where the average residential retail rate is now $0.35/kWh, and often much higher during the peak hours of 4pm-9pm, when utilities charge more to disincentive excessive use of appliances, lighting, and AC. By comparison, the equivalent cost of natural gas in California (converted from therms) is about $0.08/kWh. With electric bills all over the country similarly skyrocketing (to pay for costly solar and wind projects as well as grid hardening and expansion), it is little wonder that customers are reticent to give up gas furnaces, which are much cheaper to operate than heat pumps.
Whether reducing the stock of residential gas furnaces will similarly reduce CO2 emissions in the aggregate is also an open question. Depending on the local grid mix, electricity may be generated from coal as the primary energy source. When coal burned as generation fuel is added to end-use consumption, heat pumps may be more deleterious to the environment than simply using gas furnaces. This problem is of concern in Texas, Wyoming, West Virginia, and many midwestern states, where coal still plays a large role in producing electricity.
Finally, depending on all-electric HVAC systems creates vulnerability in the case of extended power outages. Particularly relevant to areas where winter storms can leave residents sitting in the cold and dark for more than 24 hours, relying on electricity to heat homes without sufficient backup generation can turn deadly. It is incumbent on would-be buyers and licensed contractors in these regions to perform due diligence and to ensure that homes equipped with heat pumps are also outfitted with generators or oil/ wood-burning stoves that can provide heat in the event of a power failure.
Sadly, addressing energy vulnerabilities doesn’t rise to the same level of priority as being politically correct on climate for our ruling class. They only see the virtual signaling rewards and the grifting opportunities created by such correctness.
Hat Tip: K.L.
$2 Trillion/Year Wasted Chasing ‘Green’ Fantasies
Bjorn Lomborg lays it on the line:
Despite much hype, the much-vaunted green energy transition away from fossil fuels isn’t happening.
Achieving a meaningful shift with current policies turns out to be unaffordable. We need to drastically change policy direction.
Globally, we are already spending almost $2 trillion annually to try to force an energy transition. Over the past decade, solar and wind energy use has increased to their highest-ever levels.
But it hasn’t reduced fossil fuels — on the contrary, we have added even more fossil fuels over the same time.
Countless studies show that when societies add more renewable energy, most of it never replaces coal, gas or oil. It simply adds to energy consumption. Recent research shows that for every six units of new green energy, less than one unit displaces any fossil fuel. Analysis in the United States shows that renewable energy subsidies simply lead to more overall energy being used.
In other words, policies meant to boost green energy are leading to more emissions…
What causes us to change our relative use of energy?
One study investigated 14 shifts that have taken place over the past five centuries, like when farmers went from plowing fields with animals to fossil fuel-powered tractors. The main driver has always been that the new energy service is either better or cheaper.
Solar and wind fail on both counts. They are not better, because unlike fossil fuels that can produce electricity whenever we need it, they can only produce energy according to the vagaries of daylight and weather.
This means they are not cheaper, either. At best they are only cheaper when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing at just the right speed. The rest of the time they are mostly useless and infinitely costly…
When politicians tell you the green transition is here and we need to get on board, they are really just asking voters to support them throwing more good money after bad. We need to be much smarter.
Agreed!
Hat Tip: J.C.
Why Aren’t We Hearing About Record Low Temperatures?
It’s a very interesting question isn’t it?
Climate alarmists and their left-wing corporate media allies, who constantly spread fear and anxiety among an already heavily medicated population, churn out endless streams of climate doom headlines right at the peak of the Northern Hemisphere summer (how convenient). They deliberately ignore the fact that the 2022 Tonga Volcano eruption is contributing to some of the Earth's warming—and they'll conveniently leave out this critical piece of climate news:
"Dozens of night time low temp records have been broken the last 2 mornings. Many folks waking up to temps in the upper 40s and lower 50s this morning," private weather forecaster BAM Weather wrote on X.
BAM Weather explained these low temperatures are "typical of early October weather for most."
We're not being told, of course, because journalists are, by and large, members of the climate cult.
Hat Tip: D.S.
Stop Vilifying the Oil and Gas Industry!
Elon Musk is a corporatist in many respects, but he is speaking a lot of truth these days and this is an example:
The world should stop vilifying the oil and gas industry, Elon Musk told Donald Trump in an interview on X, reiterating previous similar calls.
“My views on climate change and oil gas […] are pretty moderate,” Musk told Trump during the conversation.
“I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” added the Tesla CEO billionaire, who has endorsed Trump for president.
Musk also said that realistically the world could transition to a sustainable economy in 50 to 100 years—a timeframe which Trump extended to “100 to 500 years” later on in the interview, without Musk correcting him.
Tesla’s boss and the face of the energy transition for many enthusiasts also said that regarding oil and gas “it's not like the house is on fire immediately.”
“It's probably better to move there faster than slower. But like without vilifying the oil and gas industry and without causing hardship in the short term,” Musk added.
That’s not the first time the billionaire has called on the public to stop “demonizing” fossil fuels. He did that at the end of last year when he told an Italian right-wing summit that it was time to be “pragmatic” and “sensible”, instead of demonizing oil and gas–at least in the medium term.
Has Musk been red-pilled? Could be, but we need to remember the corporatism and some of his scary thoughts on AI, too. Nonetheless, he's making a lot og sense lately on a lot of things.
Hat Tip: R.N.
And, Briefly:
Surging Electricity Costs Threaten American Households, from S.H.
Heat Pumps Bringing German Economy to Its Knees, from T.Z.
New Tech is Fueling Another U.S. Shale Boom, from S.H.
First the Whales and Now It’s the Prairie Chickens, from T.Z.
Now, Let’s Subsidize Burger Joints by Giving Them Charger Stations, from R.N.
“Green” Hydrogen Subsidies 1,900x Larger Than Nuclear, from R.B.
Utilities Finding New Ways to Teach Customers About Natural Gas, from R.S.
#Energy #NaturalGas #BestPicks #Climate #GreenEnergy #Money #Power #Electricity #Solar #GlobalWarming #Wind #EVs #Oil #Gas
